Basic Reference

Login information for the course will be emailed to students a few days before the course begins.

Certification:

This course satisfies a partial requirement for Grades 2 and 3 certification in Wisconsin. This course partially satisfies a requirement for Librarian Certificate 4, 5, and 6 in Indiana. Check with your state library agency to see if it fulfills a similar requirement in your state.

This course is intended for staff working in small or medium-sized public libraries. We will begin with a focus on planning a basic reference service, understanding the importance of the library as an information resource in the community, learning to set policy guidelines, and conducting a reference interview. The remaining sessions offer an overview of specific reference sources in many subject areas, and conclude with an overview of future trends and issues in reference service.

Course topics:

• The reference process, history of reference services, resource sharing
• Reference service: Planning, policies, procedures, evaluation
• The reference interview I: Approachability formula, interviewing techniques and skills, reference interviews with children
• The reference interview II: The electronic environment and search strategies; telephone, email, and virtual reference; interlibrary loan interviews
• Collection development, material selection, and evaluating print, online, and electronic resources
• Gaining access: indexes, bibliographies, directories
• General reference materials I: Encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs, handbooks
• General reference materials II: Biography, geography
• Consumer, education, and career information
• Medical and legal information, science and technology
• Business and investments, sports and recreation, literature and writing, readers' advisory, popular arts, multicultural courses, history, "top 40" reference sources
• Patron privacy, continuing education, marketing

Expectations:

You are granted access to one assignment each week and expected to complete each within 10 days of the posting of the assignment. You are required to read online material, return written assignments, and complete a course project. Hands-on involvement with a public library is required. Email and online discussion is also required.

Textbook:

Ford, Charlotte. Crash Course in Reference. Libraries Unlimited, 2008. ISBN: 1591584639

Instructor:

Angela Gillis is a librarian for The Boeing Company in Washington. She has worked as a reference librarian at the Sun Prairie Public Library in Sun Prairie, WI, and as a Business Librarian at the Seattle Public Library in Seattle, WA.

*30 General LEUs for Indiana residents

To register:

• Print out a registration form and return by fax or mail - instructions on form
• Call the Pyle Center Registration Office: (608) 262-2451
• ONLINE registration - Fill out a form on the Web, pay by credit card, or have your institution billed